The Best Things in Life Aren’t Always Free

This week, I received several reader questions about free services or no-cost DIY tricks to protect your wealth and privacy.

Now, I’m all for saving money where I can, but sometimes it’s worth it to pay for quality.

Read on to see what I mean.

The information you’re sharing is great. Most of the information are really common-sense actions that people don’t really think about. The tips that you provide tend to apply for people with 100% mobility. What suggestions do you have for people with limited mobility?

— Wayne P.

Thank you, Wayne. I appreciate the kudos. Regarding your question, we just had a gentleman in a wheelchair with minimal overall function attend our Ultimate Spy Week at my 320-acre Spy Ranch in Cedar City, Utah. He was able to train the entire week and he did an excellent job.

If you have limited mobility, you would still follow my recommendations when it comes to protecting your home or carrying a weapon, such as a gun or a tactical pen, to defend yourself.

In fact, if your mobility is restricted and you aren’t able to flee a dangerous situation quickly, it’s perhaps even more critical that you carry something on your person to protect yourself. It’s also important that you practice good situational awareness so you can spot a potential threat coming and give yourself more time to react.

Here’s a tip! Easiest and most effective way to stop car burglary: Get a 12V flashing red light and an on/off switch. Wire it to your car’s battery and install it on your lower dashboard. Boom! Burglar deterrent.

— Joseph W.

This is great advice, Joseph. Just like I recommend installing fake security cameras outside your home (if you can’t afford the real thing), you can apply the same approach to your car.

Most criminals will see this blinking red light and assume the car has an electronic security system. They’ll probably decide it’s not worth the risk of setting off the alarm and move on to an easier target.

Would a sheet of aluminum foil the size of your wallet inserted next to the outside of your wallet stop any radio frequencies in or out of your wallet? I read that somewhere online. Is it true?

— Ed H.

If you wrapped each individual card in foil, then yes, it would theoretically disrupt any radio frequencies.

The reason I prefer an RFID-blocking card (like the Hack Shield) to the foil “trick” is because these cards have a chip inside them that forms an impenetrable electronic barrier around ALL your credit and debit cards. In other words, you don’t need to have a RFID-blocking card for each individual credit card.

Besides, I think it would be a huge hassle to remove aluminum foil from your card each time you wanted to use it — and you wouldn’t be able to tell any of your cards apart.

How does one put a freeze on a credit rating?

— Mary D.

To place a freeze on your credit report, you need to contact each of the three main credit bureaus: TransUnion, Equifax and Experian. Simply go to each company’s website to find instructions on how to place a credit freeze with that company.

After you’ve contacted all three agencies, they will respond to your request with a confirmation letter of your freeze, usually within 10 business days. Each agency will provide you with a personal identification number (PIN) to use when you need to allow someone access to your credit history in the future — such as when you apply for a car loan or new credit card.

When someone legitimately needs to check your credit, you can release the freeze temporarily by calling the credit agencies and using your PIN.

I strongly recommend taking the time to do this. It’s the smartest move you can make to protect your personal information. Just imagine how many hours you might spend on the phone undoing the damage of someone who’s hacked your credit and purchased a boat or a house — or worse. It’s why I’ve had a freeze on my credit for over 15 years now.

Did you know ProtonMail offers a VPN for free?

— Chris D.

You are correct, Chris. In June of this year, ProtonMail began offering a virtual private network (VPN) for free. However, use of the free version of their VPN is limited to three countries and only allows you to use their VPN with one device.

Plus, the free version of ProtonMail offers has much slower internet speed than paid versions. If you are looking for a very basic VPN to use with only one device, this isn’t a terrible option. Just remember you are limited with the free service.

In my opinion, it’s worth paying for a better service with more options and faster speeds you can use on more devices. Most reliable, reputable services only cost around $60 a year, which isn’t bad at all. Check out TunnelBear, which is my preferred VPN. Click here for a free seven-day trial.

Jason, I remember reading one of your briefs that talked about where to buy the best, most trusted gold, but I can’t find it. Can you please steer me in the right direction to purchase the purest gold from the most reliable source? I would appreciate it. Thank you.

— John P.

I think what you’re referring to, John, are CombiBars. Ryan Cole, former editor of Laissez Faire Letter’s “Unconventional Wealth” feature, did a write-up on CombiBars in a special alert for Spy & Survival Briefing readers back in April. Here’s the short version:

Offered in 20-gram and 50-gram units, CombiBars are pure gold in the form of a credit card. As 99.99% pure gold, they will track the price of gold perfectly. And they’re perforated into 1-gram pieces, so you can break off small bits to use as currency. That’s the real power of the CombiBar.

The CombiBar isn’t just an essential store of wealth and a way to thrive in the coming financial carnage. It also acts as a break-in-case-of-emergency currency you can use to survive any true breakdown of the financial system, no matter how short-lived it might be.

Simply put, there’s no better way to ensure the safety and prosperity of your family in the event of a true world-shaking shock.

And the world is closer to such a shock than it’s been in my lifetime. War is looming on the horizon. Cyberthreats are already invading our daily lives. And an economic showdown between great nations seems to be more a question of when, not if.

You heard it here first, folks. Get your gold ready. Because tomorrow is coming… and in this case, tomorrow will be too late.